Anything But The Hair
by Gadjo
Summary: Delenn wonders how she came to be the bridge between two races


**Anything but the Hair**

Author's Note: denote thoughts

Delenn stared at her…hair… and groaned. What had she been thinking?! Turning herself into a bridge between the Human and the Minbari sounded so dignified. It sounded like an honor, a duty, and a responsibility she knew she had to take. No where did it say that she was going to have to suddenly be stuck with this… this stuff… this HAIR… that was absolutely impossible to control.

She had seen many Human women with hair longer than that which she now had. She had seen MEN with more hair than she had. How did they manage? How did they manage to control it? It had been obedient when she first emerged from the chrysalis. It had been soft and had bent smoothly to the combs and clasps she had placed in it. It had looked very good, or so she thought. It had looked … fashionable. It had taken little work to gain the effect she had attempted to copy from a Human magazine. Now though, ugh,

NOW it looked, and felt, like the descriptions she had studied of an earth plant called straw.

Perhaps Commander Ivanova will be able to help. Laying her rush aside tearfully, Ambassador Delenn, member of the Gray Council and leader among the Rangers, closed her eyes to fight back tears. She was not sure why she had been so emotional lately, though she knew she would find out in time. Tucking her hair beneath her bone-crest, she looked at the mirror again. My family will not recognize me. She had changed as no Minbari had changed before. She was alone and there were none that could truly understand how she felt. She was not human, as here bone-crest so amply

showed; she was not Minbari, as no Minbari would ever have the long hair now falling around her face. She alone looked at life from the eyes of a Minbari and of a Human. She alone knew that the battles ahead would require the cooperation of the two races, as they had never cooperated before. I alone am expected to save these two races. How? I can't even save myself from my own hair.

But Valen chose you. A traitorous part of her mind whispered. You would not have been given this path if you could not reach its end. Valen was not mistaken, was he?

No She sent to that little voice. He was not mistaken. Though he might have given me an instruction manual. Standing up and heading into the kitchen, she absently looked at her quarters. They still looked the same, clean and decorated with elegant pieces of art and crystal. They still looked like a Minbari's quarters. Looking closer though, she began to realize that they had indeed begun to change. Hair clips lay piled on the bar, hair clips that no Minbari would ever have use for. Taking them in hand, she looked at the little black wires. Who would have guess that I should ever need you.

She thought as she gently built a pile of them. Who would have thought that the little girl who used to love to ride upon her fathers shoulder on the way to temple would become the person who bound two species who met in war?

You knew. Her mind told her. You have known since you first entered temple that it was what you would do. Your soul has always known what was to come. Your soul is as it has always been; only your body has changed. You have always been a bridge; your body has only just become what your mind has always been.

Think about what her mind was telling her, Deleen ordered a cup of tea from the computer and slowly stared at the pins now neatly stack in two piles. I am still ME. I am yet the child who rode upon her father's shoulders. My soul has not changed. My name and path are as they have ever been. Suddenly smiling, she picked up the twin columns of pins and entered her sleeping chamber to lay them with the rest of her hair accessories.

Hearing the chime of the door, followed by Lennier's voice, she slowly returned to the main room. I shall conquer my hair. She told herself firmly. With a smile, she entered the main room and looked into the startled eyes of the Commander.


End file.
